spurn

English

Etymology

From Middle English spurnen, spornen, from Old English spurnan (“to strike against, kick, spurn, reject; stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *spurnaną (“to tread, kick, knock out”), from Proto-Indo-European *sperH-.

Cognate with Scots spurn (“to strike, push, kick”), German spornen (“to spur on”), Icelandic sporna, spyrna (“to kick”), Latin spernō (“despise, distain, scorn”). Related to spur and spread.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /spɜːn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /spɝn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n

Verb

spurn (third-person singular simple present spurns, present participle spurning, simple past and past participle spurned)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     to spurn at your most royal image

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     What safe and nicely I might well delay
     By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.

   • 1693, [John Locke], “§111”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: A and J Churchill, , →OCLC:

     Domestics will pay a more ready and cheerful service, when they find themselves not spurned, because fortune has laid them below the level of others, at their master's feet.

   • 2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian‎:

     Although the term “rewilding” – meaning an approach to conservation that allows nature a free rein – has been in currency since 1990, many traditional landowners and gamekeepers continue to spurn both the term and the idea behind it.

2. (transitive) To reject something by pushing it away with the foot.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     Me thinks I ſee kings kneeling at his feet,
     And he with frowning browes and fiery lookes,
     Spurning their crownes from off their captiue heads.

   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.

3. (transitive) To waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity)
   • 2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Marouane Chamakh then spurned a great chance to kill the game off when he ran onto Andrey Arshavin's lofted through ball but shanked his shot horribly across the face of goal.

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To kick or toss up the heels.
   • , [John] Gay, “Book II. Of Walking the Streets by Day.”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: Bernard Lintott, , →OCLC, page 46:

     oft' the ſudden Gale
     Ruffles the Tide, and ſhifts the dang'rous Sail,
     […]
     The drunken Chairman in the Kennel ſpurns,
     The Glaſſes ſhatters, and his Charge o'erturns.

Derived terms

• spurner

Translations

Noun

spurn (plural spurns)

1. An act of spurning; a scornful rejection.
2. A kick; a blow with the foot.
   • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: , 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book:

     What defence can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn?

3. (obsolete) Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     The insolence of office and the spurns
     That patient merit of the unworthy takes.

4. (mining) A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.

Translations

References

Icelandic

Noun

spurn f (genitive singular spurnar, nominative plural spurnir)

1. Used in set phrases

   Ég hafði spurnir af Ara.

   I received news of Ari.

Declension

Derived terms

• afspurn

Middle English

Etymology 1

A back-formation from spurnen.

Alternative forms

• sporn, spurne

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spurn/

Noun

spurn

1. (rare) A stumbling; a collapse.
2. (rare) A strike or blow using one's feet.

Descendants

• English: spurn

References

• “spurn(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-08.

Etymology 2

Verb

spurn

1. Alternative form of spurnen